Annotation
[1] ALS, DLC-RTL. See Lincoln's remarks to the New York Committee, May 30, supra. On June 9, Fremont wrote Sumner as follows: ``I have delayed a few days my reply to your kind note. . . . I was pressingly reminded of your note by a visit from the committee which had called upon Mr. Lincoln & to which he had promised this letter to you. I beg you will say to the President that this movement does not, in the remotest way originate with me. On the contrary when the Committee called . . . I declined positively to enter into it, or to consent to having my name mentioned to the President in connection with it. . . . I disapproved the project of raising and sending to the field, colored troops in scattered and weak detachments. . . . I told them that if I had been placed in the Dept. which the President & Secretary arranged for me when I was last in Washington & in which I should have had a suitable field for this organization and white troops to protect it and ensure its success---I could have undertaken it & have undoubtedly organized a formidable force. But these views were mearly in answer to the committee and ended my relation to the subject. I beg you to say to the President that I have no design to embarrass him with creating a Dept. for me. . . . this whole business is as dangerous and difficult as it is important. . . . It demands . . . some officer of ability and judgment in whom the President would be willing to give the necessary powers. He must have power and the Presidents confidence---therefore I do not propose myself for this work. . . . Will the President realize that if this summer's campaigns are not successful the Confederacy is well nigh established? I think not. . . . But pray don't let him think that I am moving in any direction, or by any persons to get this command. Enclosed I return the